Army Captain Jamar Jenkins was looking for tactics to further his success, along with the success of the 400 soldiers in his company. In William & Mary’s Online MBA program, he found a college that is both military friendly and academically acclaimed.
In the program, he’s learned what it means to become a "Renaissance Manager." After identifying a “wicked problem,” or a complex issue within his company or industry that he’d like to help solve, Jenkins began applying his new strategies and concepts in his current role and is already seeing positive effects.
“What I realized going through the Renaissance Manager process is that I can actually solve this problem by changing the mindset. If I can take the company that I have, the 400 soldiers that I have, and change their mindset, now I'm producing more resilient, tougher soldiers who are smarter—all because they have the growth mindset,” Jenkins added. “Now, I'm just one company. Once you multiply this, it has a significant impact."
Video Transcript
My name is Jamar Jenkins, and I'm a Captain in the army. I'm currently the Commander of Echo Company, 266 Quartermaster battalion. And I'm in charge of the transportation soldiers training. And typically anywhere from three to 4,000 soldiers annually will come through my training. I was looking to further in myself as far as personal development. And so in proximity, William and Mary obviously is a globally known degree that carries a lot of weight. So the moment that they offered it online, I knew William and Mary was a place for me.
The classes so far, I've been able to apply concepts, techniques, and principles immediately at work. In a renaissance manager, which is a highlight of this whole program. It's the first course that you take. They guide you in selecting a wicked problem. You're charged at looking at something within your company or industry that you want to solve. Not something that's easy, but that's hard.
And for me as a company commander, the issue that I've seen is that I've had to kick out people in the army because either they weren't resilient enough or they did not meet the academic requirements to do it. And so typically one class of these soldiers is 30 soldiers and historical attrition has been 25%. But what I realized going through the renaissance manager process is that I can actually solve this problem by changing the mindset. If I can take the company that I have, the 400 soldiers that I have and change their mindset, now I'm producing more resilient, tougher soldiers who are smarter, all because they have the growth mindset. And I'm just one company. Once you multiply this, it has a significant impact.
We're saving the army to date around $10 million, and we can quantify that. And so we went from a 25% attrition weight down to a four, so we've improved just through the mindset alone. We've improved these percentages 21%, and that has everyone looking.
How the online MBA has changed me and my way of thinking has been absolutely dramatic. What William and Mary online MBA program has given to me more so than anything is two things. It's confidence and competence. And with that, I know that whenever I transition out to military, whatever job that I have, no matter if I am in there with a Harvard MBA grad, with anybody from any other degree, I'm proud of my William and Mary. And they're going to know who I am.